Politics is the art of the possible.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.